Young

Young is the 34th most common surname in the United States, shared by 468,920 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 637.

By the numbers

People: 468,920
Rank: 34th
How common: 1 in 637
Per 100,000: 156.9

Where the name comes from

As an English, Scottish, and northern Irish surname, from the adjective young, used to distinguish a younger brother or son. This sense is comparable to the surnames le Yunge, German Jong and Junk, Dutch Jong and de Jongh, French Lejeune and LaJeunesse, assimilated from Dion and Guyon.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Young described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 63.7%
Black, not Hispanic 23.9%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.8%
Hispanic or Latino 3.6%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 3.2%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Young

Thomas Young (1773–1829)English polymath
Neil Young (born 1945)Canadian singer, songwriter and filmmaker
Ashley Young (born 1985)English association football player
Angus Young (born 1955)Australian guitarist
Loretta Young (1913–2000)American actress
Brigham Young (1801–1877)American religious leader
John Young (1930–2018)American astronaut, naval officer, test pilot and aeronautical engineer
Michael W. Young (born 1949)American geneticist, chronobiologist

People named Young with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Young

Also a first name

Young has been given to 2,764 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1991. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.